Items relating to the work of schools and colleges, including resources and training opportunities.

Trials of First Aid lessons taking place.

September 13, 2019

Trials of first aid lessons in English schools begin this month, with the classes becoming compulsory from 2020.

A total of 1,600 schools from around the country are taking part.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the new health curriculum would give every child "the chance to learn life-saving skills".

The British Red Cross said up to 59% of deaths by injury could be prevented in the UK if first aid was given prior to the arrival of medical services.

Primary school children will be taught basic skills such as how to call emergency services, while secondary school children will learn life-saving skills such as how to help someone who is suffering a cardiac arrest.

The British Heart Foundation said the lessons could help improve the UK's "shockingly low survival rates from cardiac arrests".

Survival rates in countries that teach first aid in school are up to three times higher, it added.

'Beggars belief'

There were errors on two questions on a verbal reasoning paper and two questions on a practice section of an English test.

A mother whose child sat the exam, and did not want to be named, said: "It was impossible to answer and kids began raising their hands - which at the age of 10 under exam conditions takes some courage."

She added it "beggars belief that no-one proof read it".

The Gerrards Cross CE School, a primary school, wrote to parents to say the questions made children "concerned" and "upset" and this may have affected their overall performance.

Teshasobtained a GCSE options presentationfor Thomas Telford School. The slideshow informs parents that "Year 7, 8 and 9 are recognised as the ‘lost years’” and that “Year 10 and 11 are too short to study GCSEs”.

The presentation says that pupils have “advised” the school that “they would have preferred to start options in Year 8”. As a result, pupils at Thomas Telford “will have four rather than three years to study courses”.

Majority of Head Teachers oppose tests for four year olds.

A majority of head teachers oppose controversial government plans to test four-year-olds in their first weeks atprimary school, a new study suggests.

Thousands of schools across England will pilot “reception baseline assessments” in September, and theDepartment for Education(DfE) intends to make them compulsory in 2020.

But the 20-minute tests, which will assess communication, language, literacy and mathematics skills, were denounced by head teachers as “inappropriate” and “totally unnecessary” in research carried out by staff at University College London’s Institute of Education.

Academy chain uses CCTV to share bad behaviour with parents.

September 4, 2019

An academy school chain is usingCCTVfootage to show parents how their children have misbehaved atschool,ican reveal.

The Thinking Schools Academy Trust, which runs 17 schools in Kent and Portsmouth, uses the footage as part of a “restorative” approach which forces pupils to confront the evidence of their bad behaviour in order to make amends.

However, the policy has been labelled “Orwellian” by one civil liberties group.

The academy chain spells out its approach in a contribution to abehaviour guidepublished by the Confederation of School Trust and the campaign group Parents and Teachers for Excellence.

What will happen to excluded children under this government?

September 4, 2019

BetweenAshes dramaand what many are describing as a Boris Johnson coup, much other news and comment was eclipsed this week. Nonetheless, Tuesday produced what seemed to me to be three particularly significant items.

She reports that, since 2016,Ofstedhas investigated more than 500 unregistered schools, where some 6,000 children are being educated – or, rather, not being educated. More shocking than her description of disgusting, insanitary and hazardous premises was, to my mind, the fact that more than a quarter of such places were offeringalternative provision(AP) to pupils excluded from mainstream schools.

Sylvester joined the Ofsted investigations team at an unlicensed West Midlands school, now subject to an Ofsted investigation that may lead to criminal charges. Astonishingly, this school is run by the local authority, an arm of government ignorant of, or ignoring, the fact that it’s sending children for whom it is responsible to an illegal institution.